The short film "Beyond the Mountains" , created by Li Linhu and his fellow classmates from the CFA postgraduate program, has been garnering acclaim at international film festivals since May. It has taken home numerous awards, including Best Short Doc at Rome Prisma Film Awards, BRONZE AWARDS-Best Student Short at Independent Shorts Awards in Los Angeles, Best Student Film at Korea International Short Film Festival, and Best Student Film at World Film Carnival-Singapore. The movie also competed for Best Student Short Film at the South Film and Arts Academy Festival in Chile, and for Best Short Film at Sweden Film Awards.

Poster for the short film "Beyond the Mountains"

Notably, Independent Shorts Awards, a leading international short film festival, counts among its past laureates Oscar winners Joel Harlow, Laura Dern, Nick Vallelonga, and Robert Zemeckis. During the last 6 years, Independent Shorts Awards has been boosting several projects such as Oscar-longlisted animated short "Umbrella" (Brazil), Oscar-longlisted documentary short "After Skid Row" (USA), and Oscar-longlisted live action short "Cognition" (UK)

Certificate from the Independent Shorts Awards

Movie still and certificate from Rome Prisma Film Awards

All of the main creators of "Beyond the Mountains" are from the 2021 cohort of CFA postgraduates, with their expertise covering film-making, film industry, film restoration and film history research. The movie is directed, written and photographed by Li Linhu, with Liu Luoqi as the executive producer, Xiang Han as the production designer, Qin Yumeng as the screenplay coordinator, Zhang Fenggang as the sound engineer and Tang Kunlin as the leading actor. Wu Feimin, a graduate student from the Beijing Film Academy participated in the cast, and Wen Zhongyan as well as Lin Juanni helped in the film’s production.

Film crew at work

Shot in Anxi County, Quanzhou city, Fujian Province of China, "Beyond the Mountains" is the creative fruit of CFA graduate students on the Summer program at the Anxi Digital Resource Center Practice Base. Li’s creation has long been centered on the dilemma and escape attempts of his characters. This is also the motif that inspired him for his award-winning film. “ When I found myself in the humid South, surrounded by fog and mountains, the landscape and local culture helped  materialize my creative ideas,” said he.

Film crew working on location

(Translated by Luo Desai)